6. December 2019

Why are we analysing the market?

I have come to ponder "Why do we analyse the markets, and why do I enjoy it so much?". Especially the word "joy" is important. Humans are not meant to work just to pay the rent. We are meant to work with something that intrigue us, something that is a challenge and a joy at the same time, something we can lose ourselves in. For some reason all of that is summed up in analysis, for me.

I knew a very gifted clarinet musician that worked with discipline with the music, and he loved it the same way. For someone else it is working with children - which in my view is something of the highest and most worthy aspiration. I just don't think we "choose" what we are fascinated by. It just happens. We also don't choose who we fall in love with. It just happens some magical way. But we are not here to talk about marriage, music or children - although we should do that some other time. The topic is working with analysis. 

I am fascinated by craftsmen. I watch Japanese carpenters make incredible workmanship with wood and their tools. I watch David Bull make woodblock printing which is part craft knowledge and part art. And whenever I watch this, I recognize their commitment and craft in my own work. I am just as dedicated and disciplined, and analysis is also partly a craft knowledge and part "art" (call it symmetry, gut feeling, alignment, sensing or whatever term you like).

My tool is not a chisel or a Japanese Hangi-to. I would love if "my craft" used this kind of tangible chisel tools as well as thick cherry wood to cut. Alas, my craft is without tangible tools. I use a computer, a mouse and a keyboard - and my eyes and wit. But in the computer I use virtual tools like trendlines, mathematical equations overlaid on the price chart etc. So, I have my arrangement of tools as well, although they are less tangible than a physical chisel. That way I feel connected to the old craftsmen that worked all their life making useful craft, and developing their skills along the way. Knowing that there is always more to learn from the craft, more to pour into the craft. This is a two-way pump, working both ways, and that's the way it has always been if done right. You learn from doing the craft, and what you learn you pour into your next project.

So I analyse the market because I'm a craftsman, and I can't help it because that is what is creating joy and development. I know this is centring on me, so the question should also be what others get out of it. It is like a craftsman that I met in Canada. I liked him right away, and he sold me a beautiful wooden cutting board for the kitchen. The board had cherry, maple and oak wood fused together into a beautiful cutting board. That is his craft and joy. And I get to cut vegetables on this beautiful cutting board, enjoying the marvellous work and details, remembering him and his craft. The same way someone else should get something out of the craft I do. You may like this particular cutting board, or you may prefer to buy it elsewhere because you prefer plastic cutting boards. There is no judgement in that. Plastic boards are fine. But here you get wooden cutting boards made from maple and in my design, and there is always a select group of people who appreciate that kind of craft.